Fotografiska New York lived inside a landmarked 19th-century building on Park Avenue South — running exhibitions, talks, performances, and nightlife. Chapel Bar, its sister members' lounge, occupied the reimagined chapel next door.
I led content strategy and editorial direction across the institution — exhibitions, programming, social, email — and built Chapel Bar's social launch end-to-end as the venue extended Fotografiska's voice into hospitality.
The work was building one editorial register that could hold across the entire calendar — exhibition, talk, performance, late-night at Chapel Bar — and still feel like the same institution speaking. Each touchpoint had its own audience; the voice had to be unmistakably Fotografiska.
I translated each exhibition into stories built for the feed without flattening the art. Installation views, artist context, narrative captions — helping audiences understand what was on view before they walked in.
Shanghai-born artist Pixy Liao staged domestic intimacy with her boyfriend Moro as her subject — sashimi served on his body, choreographed power inversions, and gentle absurdity. The campaign carried her dry humor forward as Fotografiska's social register.
Fotografiska wasn't a white-cube museum — painted walls, immersive typography, exhibitions staged to be visually loud. I'd brief a photographer to shoot each show the day before opening with a social-first eye: full bleed, saturated, scroll-stopping. The story sequence below is one example of how that translated for Your Gaze Belongs to Me. The launch posts followed.
Selected stories from the opening of Your Gaze Belongs to Me — one example of how each exhibition translated to IG Stories. Visual templates by our in-house graphic designer.
The tables have turned. Multidisciplinary Shanghai-born artist Pixy Liao (@bloodypixy) will leave you with bated breath as she takes the reins and her boyfriend Moro assumes submission in our new exhibition "Your Gaze Belongs to Me."
Tap the link in bio to purchase your ticket.
"After Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss," from the "Experimental Relationship" series, 2019. © Pixy LiaoItadakimasu! @bloodypixy reimagines her boyfriend Moro as a human sushi in "Home-made Sushi," a fun literal take on "Nyotaimori" or "Nantaimori," the Japanese tradition of serving sashimi or sushi on a naked body of a woman or man that dates back to the Edo period (1603–1867).
Now on display as part of Pixy Liao's "Your Gaze Belongs to Me." Tap the link in bio to purchase your ticket.
"Home-made Sushi," from the "Experimental Relationship" series, 2010. © Pixy LiaoInspired by Pixy Liao's Red Nails, I conceived a custom Instagram AR filter — built with our graphic designer — that let visitors wear the artist's gesture on their own face.
Custom AR effect built for @fotografiska.ny on Instagram. Inspired by "Red Nails," from the "Experimental Relationship" series, 2010. © Pixy LiaoWhen Fotografiska earned long-form editorial coverage, I adapted the strongest pieces into native IG Story sequences. My work was the editorial adaptation layer — curating which features to take, selecting the quote frames, sequencing the rhythm, and writing the story-level captions. Visual templates were established by Banker Wessel and translated across media by our in-house graphic designer.
Across the live calendar — talks, performances, late-night events — I directed on-site capture and the edits that followed. Each program produced clips, stills, and recaps that extended the conversation past the room.
Tucked inside a reimagined 19th-century chapel next door, Chapel Bar opened as Fotografiska's after-dark counterpart — a members' lounge for cocktails, performances, and late-night programming. I owned the launch end-to-end on social: brand voice, content strategy, visual rollout, photography direction, copywriting, and the editorial register that gave the venue a visual world distinct from the museum but unmistakably its own. King & Partners developed Chapel Bar's brand identity; I shaped how it lived across content.
Tucked away in @fotografiska.ny and a former 19th-century chapel reimagined, Chapel Bar is home to an exclusive after-dark members' lounge, complete with a stellar cocktail program, live events and performances — and the occasional confession, of course.
Now open.
I composed the feed as a continuous editorial sequence — interior shots, iconographic frames, candlelit details, typographic moments — and worked with our in-house designer on the icon system (chalice, fleur-de-lis, gothic arch, padlock) that anchored the visual rhythm.
Chapel Bar's handcrafted cocktails deserved their own showcase. Each drink got its own story, numbered I through X, designed to live in IG Highlights as a digital menu guests could pull up at the bar. A brand-play extension as much as a content one.
Cover frame plus ten cocktails — I through X. Each drink gets its own story: name, lineage, and the spirit behind it.
The full menu lives in IG Highlights as a guest-facing reference — pulled up at the bar, written for the feed.
L'Élixir de longue vie.
A centuries-old recipe passed down for generations by the Carthusian monks, today the secret recipe of Chartreuse is guarded by only two monks at the Monastery of Grande Chartreuse.
Featured: the "I" cocktail — Gin, Chartreuse, Maraschino and fresh lime juice.
Drink at the altar of spirits invented, created, brewed, distilled and inspired by monks, priests and influential figures around the world.
The position: an institutional voice can hold across exhibitions, programming, and hospitality when the work is treated as one editorial ecosystem. Fotografiska read as one institution across every room — clear enough to recognize, flexible enough to bend around each artist, event, and audience.